The Numinous Factor: The Spiritual Basis of Science and of Life

By John L. Walker

From the newly discovered Higgs particle of the subatomic world to the emerging role of the vast quantities of unseen matter and energy of outer space to our earthly relationships and the age-old questions about who we are and where we go when we die, The Numinous Factor shows how both science and everyday life in the twenty-first century can be experienced better by seeing spirituality as the basis of everything.

Through application of its ten non-religious principles of mind expansion, you will:
Understand better the latest discoveries of science Discover more of your own complex identity Increase beyond limitation your awareness and ability to comprehend Relate better to everyone and everything in the world around you through spiritual unity Calm your mind by seeing your basic essence as being one with the spirituality of the Universe Realize why seemingly negative things happen See new dimensions of your existence after this earthly life Sense the great peace and happiness of a higher spiritual consciousness.<.ul>

The Numinous Factor is the missing link between physical reality and spiritual reality. It opens up the heart and reveals new dimensions of our expanding Mind.
Geofrey Grant Layng, minister and public speaker

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Sep 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781452557687

John L. Walker

Dr. Walker’s seventy-plus years of experience include being a professor of both religion and languages, university administrator, religious leader, prison religious counselor, public speaker, author, and mystic. He and his wife, Corky, both musicians and radio hams, enjoy Southern California life. Address: [e-mail].

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Copyright © 2012 John L. Walker, PhD

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5767-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5768-7 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-5769-4 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915582

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

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Balboa Press rev. date: 09/11/2012

Contents

Preface

Chapter One  The Need and the Mode

Chapter Two  The Factor and Limitlessness

Chapter Three  Unity and Continuity

Chapter Four  Intuition and Energy

Chapter Five  Seeing Spirituality in the Principles

Chapter Six  The Factor and the Quantum

Chapter Seven  Photons and Fields

Chapter Eight  Other Universes

Chapter Nine  The Factor and the Cosmos

Chapter Ten  Formations and Cycles

Chapter Eleven  Earthly Applications of the Factor

To Corky

and to Geoff

Preface

This is a spiritual book. It suggests ways by which all of us can expand our spiritual consciousness to unlimited awareness of the true nature of everything in this complex Universe, from the subatomic world to beyond the outer reaches of space, as well as find more fulfillment in our daily lives. It proposes certain principles that we can factor into our own awareness and thought processes to whatever extent we choose in order to achieve as high a level of spirituality as we are ready to attain. And it shows how using these principles, referred to collectively as The Numinous Factor, can dispel the personal fears and uncertainties about life and death that mankind has taken for granted up to now.

However, we have to clarify at the outset what this book is not. It is not a religious book. There will be no discussions of belief groups, with their different dogmas, creeds, standards, methods of worship, clothing, foods, and names for Deity, since one function of religion is to separate and compartmentalize rather than to unite everyone into one big whole as spirituality tends to do.

Also, this is not a scientific book. Generally-accepted scientific observations will be used as launching pads for discussions of their spiritual natures and components, but nothing will be proven or advocated logically. There is no math and there are no formulas except the famous one from Albert Einstein that everyone already knows. There is, therefore, no required knowledge of science. Everyone is on the same footing here.

Likewise, it is not a scholarly book filled with logical conclusions synthesized from extensive research. Indeed, it prefers to show how our limited human knowledge and narrow reasoning ability cannot fathom the reality of what is out there, or even grasp what most of the Universe is like without recognizing its essentially spiritual nature.

And, finally, it is not a philosophical book, with detailed discussions of various -isms. Of course, those familiar with such concepts as transcendence versus immanence, theism versus pantheism, monism versus dualism, and especially with the newer term panentheism, will see these in the discussion, but not in abstract. Instead, we will be taking a new tack, a practical one, incorporating (as would be expected) all such aspects of thought, experience, and spirituality into one. Again, the functions of both religion and philosophy are to separate and compartmentalize, much as how a prism breaks down light into a rainbow of colors. The display of individual hues is beautiful, pleasing, and interesting, but the greatest light comes when they are again fused into pure white. Fusing the material world together with the spiritual one within ourselves requires an effort beyond human separatist rationality.

So a mode of understanding beyond human senses and thinking abilities will be introduced and everything will be seen through this mode. Human thinking ability and human knowledge, great as they are, establish such limits to total understanding that we simply must get around these for proper expansion of consciousness. There comes a time when scholarship needs to rise to the point of recognizing its own inadequacy, and achieving this point is one of the first steps in escaping from our human limitations of thought and understanding.

This book, then, is not meant to prove anything, but rather to indicate a spiritual path that is worth a try, a path that could lead to a heightened ability to receive inspiration. Grasping and using the Numinous Factor is one way to rise to new realizations. This book shows methods and insights that we can use to see and appreciate the Spirituality that is actually the basis of all that exists. Using its guidance, we can embark on a voyage to higher consciousness, to greater understanding of ourselves and of everything around us, and to spiritual unity. It can be a glorious journey, leading to complete happiness and peace as we see what the Universe really is and who we ourselves really are.

CHAPTER ONE

The Need and the Mode

The Problem

With all of the marvelous advances in knowledge of the Universe being made these days, it could be thought that scientists have finally figured out the essential nature of its functions and how it came into being, and that there is, then, no need for consideration of the role of a Divine Creator in all of it. After all, scientists have studied the Big Bang theory, have looked at the expanding universe, have analyzed black holes, have figured out the formation of carbon and other elements needed for life as we know it, and have learned much of how atomic theory works in outer space. They also have come to understand much about the quantum or subatomic world, such as what makes up atoms, what the energy fields are that seem to give rise to everything that exists, and what seems to be the fundamental basis of everything that we can observe and even what we cannot observe. They think that they are getting close to the Theory of Everything that will explain the totality of Creation. It even seems possible that, across the Universe, all energies can balance each other out, leaving no restrictions on the continuity of all of the above phenomena, which might suggest that entities could actually spring into being spontaneously without any need for a spiritual Creator. This seems to solve the whole story of Creativity and to end all the religious speculation.

Yet, there still seem to be a few questions that science has not been able to answer so far:

Where did energy and matter come from in the first place? How and why did this Universe, with its enormous complexity, organization, and delicate balances of enormous forces, get assembled into this form? How did the forces that govern it come into being? What is gravity? What is life? What instigates universes to form? What is outside the Universe? And, more importantly for us personally: Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going?

We can never get to the bottom of Creation rationally. There is always more to know. The fact is that there are parts of the physical sciences that cannot be seen rationally because that is the way they seem to be set up in relation to us. At the same time, we have yet to understand the Creation through religion since religions throughout human history have come up with a great variety of supposed explanations, usually based on limited knowledge and restricted views of the Supreme Deity.

Viewpoints of the Creation seem to fall into two general categories. In one, the Universe is seen as a strictly physical entity and its origins and operations can be understood rationally without any need for Deity. In the other, the Universe is seen as having been brought into existence by a Creator Who put the breath of life into it, and then either controls it still or has left it to run on its own. Both views, however, indicate that the physical Universe operates as a separate entity, whether created by Deity or not.

Actually, there is another possibility.

Maybe there is a Creative Power that really is the energy, is the gravity, is the rock, and is the fusion process in the stars. Maybe there is no separation between the Creator and the Created, between Spiritual and Physical. Maybe everything that we see or measure physically and everything that we might sense or feel spiritually is really One, a Unity. If this is so, then Spirituality, a human term referring to an awareness of the Presence of the Divine, cannot be left out of scientific reasoning. At the same time, science can enhance an understanding of the concrete aspects of the spiritual. The combination of science and spirituality might give a more complete view, similar to how using two eyes gives a perspective that using one eye does not. It would also be reassuring to realize that Deity is not off somewhere doing something else after abandoning us here, but rather exists in, through, and as everything in the Universe, including us, so that there is no separation between man and spirit, a concept that could end the great angst that grips much of the religious world as it tries to find a way to live on after bodily death. It would seem that such a realization could bring us great peace and fulfillment, both in this life and in the next.

This book shows a way to achieve this realization of Divinity as the Essence, the Source, and the Totality of all that is, a viewpoint that leads us to a more complete understanding both of the physical and of the spiritual. The aim here is to present a method that can let us understand better the things around us-our physical world, the vastness of outer space, the tiny world of the atom, the existence of intelligent human beings here and possibly elsewhere, our unexpected and complex added dimensions-by seeing spirituality as the oneness of everything.

Spirituality

Let us see how that can be. We start by remembering that the word spiritual (with its roots in wind or breath) refers to the active Divine essence that gives life and animation to physical things. It is generally thought of as being separate from the objects it animates, but for our purposes, we can ponder how spirituality might rather be seen as the totality of the objects. Possibly we can begin to realize that everything is completely spiritual, not just consisting of separate entities that are animated by a special breath. Spiritual and physical, we might decide, along with any other aspects, form a Oneness, a Unity. This book will suggest several steps that the reader might follow to increase awareness of the Presence of Spirituality in everything seen or known, and extending to things not yet seen or known. You may wish to select other such steps, because those listed here constitute just one way of opening the awareness. We will call the steps listed here The Numinous Factor, since the word numinous is not a religious name for Deity, but rather refers to an awareness of the spirituality inherent in everything. We will examine the full meaning of the word numinous later on.

Once we have pondered the principles of The Numinous Factor, we will take them first into the subatomic world, where we will see the wild and wonderful ways it carries on its role in life as the basis of everything around us, and then travel out through the cosmos, those vast reaches of outer space, where we will see in more dimensions than we thought we even possessed how all of it developed and why it is the way it is. After that, and actually throughout the discussion, we will develop a different view of the social world in which we now live and of ourselves, seeing a little more of whom we are and what we can become. We might then achieve a greater perspective, a more complete picture of Life Itself, than we have had so far, and thereby achieve peace, fulfillment, and joy as we realize that we are inseparable parts of the Divine Totality.

Awareness of all of this can be achieved through simple explanations along with thoughts for us to ponder, all enhanced by methods that will allow a free flow of intuition that can let enlightenment to blossom within us. There will be no math, no equations, and no complicated concepts. These are means that scientists use to create orderly, balanced, and complete representations of what they are learning. They use scientific methods with what they hope is complete objectivity, employing exact measurements, elimination of variables, logical deduction, and synthesis of accurate conclusions, all of which need to be done in ways that can be duplicated by others. In this book, however, we will be balancing spirituality and science using subjectivity, intuition, insight, and individual conclusions. All these might not be the same for others even if they use our exact methods because spirituality is an individual thing that generally cannot be proven while it is also a unity that sees all things as individual facets of the whole. We will look at why this must be so later on. For now, let us just say that the final awareness will be the same for everyone eventually, but the methods to achieve it will be individualized and subjective.

Actually, this blending of the subjective and objective is what science is all about anyway. For example, as we will see in our look at quantum physics, various observers of quantum phenomena can arrive at different conclusions, all of which are valid, and all of which are part of the system. There is a subjectivity built into our most fundamental area of physics. Even our system of mathematics itself, seemingly solid, dependable, and unchanging, is based on certain axioms that were chosen long ago, and mathematicians have found that alternative systems based on other axioms will work just as well. So everything in science is just a little bit subjective as well as objective in the first place, and our look